In March 2017, the French EdTech observatory was released.

Posted by Will Lourdelet | April 20, 2017 | Primary

The French Edtech Observatory lists the 242 innovating companies which form the French EdTech ecosystem. Among them, several startups are reshaping education with new technologies such as Adaptive Learning.

The growing global EdTech market is divided into three major hubs: North America, Europe and Asia. In France, as in most countries worldwide, the main markets are corporate training and higher education. Who are these French EdTech players who are making the market take off? The EdTech observatory was recently released to draw up a list of more than 240 companies, mostly startups, which operate in the field of technology-enhanced learning.

This first French observatory aims to present a regularly updated interactive tool for all the actors in this ecosystem: What services? Which learners? Which buyers? What technologies? The objective is to promote the diversity of organisations who shape today’s EdTech and help institutions, human resources departments, instructors and learners who choose what is best for them. It is also about giving visibility to startups and small companies both in France and globally.

“As the third international delegation at the Bett Show in London, France proved to be a dynamic EdTech market,” says Stéphane Distinguin, President of Cap Digital, the French business cluster for digital content and services.

Learning management systems, social & collaboration tools, educational games, virtual & augmented reality, Adaptive Learning… the French EdTech ecosystem counts on a wide variety of solution providers. The observatory highlights that the market is accelerating: two thirds of the listed companies have existed for less than three years, and 75% of them have less than 10 employees. Since 2015, more than 100 startups have been created. Besides, 33% have already raised funds while 66% are planning to raise funds in 2017.

Are Adaptive Learning providers booming in the French market?

With 75 providers out of 242 (31%), Adaptive Learning is one of the most represented technologies in the French EdTech ecosystem. But it seems that Adaptive Learning has only become a buzzword that some companies use for marketing purposes… which sometimes harms the ones that actually provide this type of technology.

Domoscio, specialized in Adaptive Learning, is one of the world’s pioneers and the European leader in this field. Domoscio connects cognitive science with artificial intelligence to develop solutions to personalise the learning experiences. “We all learn differently. However, learning is based on a one-size-fits-all framework, from primary education to corporate training and MOOCs”, says Ivan Ostrowicz, CEO and cofounder of Domoscio.

Benoit Praly, CTO and cofounder of Domoscio, adds: “Whether we work with schools, universities, publishers, or companies, our goal stays the same: improving the learning outcomes. This is done by providing learners with personalized learning paths according to their profile and learning objectives, and giving instructors the relevant information and feedback to monitor the learning process.” Domoscio has been operating in education for four years and is supported by the European Commission, the French Ministry of National Education, the National Agency for Research, and the French Public Investment Bank.

The EdTech observatory is a great tool to follow what is happening in the fast-growing French EdTech market. But as the listed companies have declared their own information, it is necessary to dig deeper into what all these innovators actually do to enhance learning.

About Domoscio

Created in 2013, Domoscio is specialized in Adaptive Learning and a major player in the EdTech market. It provides adaptive technologies (Adaptive Learning, Learning Analytics and artificial intelligence for learning) to meet the education challenges.

A free, subscription-only bi-monthly magazine featuring the latest edtech news, opinion, and event reviews from across the education sector, including primary and secondary schools, further and higher education.

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